by Linda Straker
- Grenada is holding steady in Transparency International annual ranking
- Anti-corruption bodies include Commonwealth Caribbean Integrity Commissions and Anti-Corruption Bodies (CCAICAB), Integrity Commission and Financial Intelligence Unit
Superintendent Tafawa Pierre, Head of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) believes that corruption perception indices are measuring sticks which encourage states to strive for all-round improvement and is encouraged that Grenada is holding steady in the annual ranking of Transparency International.
“Noting that the impact of corruption on small developing countries are greater than their larger and more developed counterparts, national stakeholders must do more to engage the nation about the prevention of crimes of corruption and implement a comprehensive national risk management system to address Grenada’s vulnerabilities to corrupt activities through perceived weak national systems,” Pierre is quoting as saying in a news release from the Office of the Integrity Commission.
The FIU is the agency responsible for the investigation of financial crimes and is one of the anti-corruption stakeholders. The other anti-corruption bodies include the Commonwealth Caribbean Integrity Commissions and Anti-Corruption Bodies (CCAICAB), the Integrity Commission and the Financial Intelligence Unit, along with national anti-corruption Round Table Partners.
The Integrity Commission release said that having reviewed the 2019 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) report, it has observed that a staggering number of countries is showing little to no improvement in tackling corruption.
Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index is based on the perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople and was published on Thursday, 23 January 2020. Grenada received a score of 53 out of 100 and ranked at 51 out of 180 countries – moving two places up from 53 in 2018.
Grenada is among four Caribbean countries which saw an improvement in their ranking in the Transparency International 2019 and ranks in the top third of the least corrupt countries in the region and in the world after its re-entry to CPI evaluation in 2016, after a lapse of eight years. The CPI uses a scale of 0 to 100 to score countries, with 0 being highly corrupt and 100 very clean.
Chairperson of the Integrity Commission, Anande Trotman-Joseph, said, “We are positive that Grenada will continue to improve in the CPI rankings once national best practices and data sets evidencing the efforts of national stakeholders in addressing corruption management, and fiscal and procurement systems are mainstreamed, and integrated into global databases.”
Lady Trotman-Joseph asserted that “the consistency and improvement in Grenada’s performance is a testament too to the continuous and focused work of the Commission in the areas of receipt of asset declarations, capacity building for public officers and statutory bodies, public education of the public sector and wider society about integrity and corruption management, and implementation of compliance and investigations systems. The commission’s work is encouraged by the growing collective national will.”
The release said that Grenada has been receiving positive recognition and commendation for the implementation of anti-corruption best practice efforts, nationally, by regional bodies, the Commonwealth Secretariat, and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
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Grenada receiving what!? The FIU and Integrity Commission is FAKE and TAINTED. They were hand picked by d present administration. Look how much scandals in this country and they cannot answer a simple yes or no question. As a matter of fact they doesnt know if investigation is going on in their own department. WHAT TRANSPARENCY…they fail to investigate corruption because their hands are tied behind their necks… The police force and so call integrity ….keith mitchell call d shots so TRANSPARENCY where is it? SHUT UP. You can fool some of the people some of d time but not all d people all d time. HA HA. Just remember very soon those vampires will have to answer for tax payers money. TIME ALONE WILL TELL
Transparency International surely must not be aware of this ongoing corruption activity going on in Grenada. The extremes taken to cover up fraud is in itself full time job for many of these Government puppets. Scary indeed.
We have individuals that have fell victim to PM Mitchell’s ” Green Machine ” fraud. When that is exposed, many of these cover – ups will burst like a bubble.
There is much further to be revealed from the Shrimp Farm financing in CBI vast money loss. There are the ongoing allegations of Diplomatic Passport sales, plus as well where the supposed many millions in cash advances from the Oil & Gas went; and we can go on and on.
That being said, to not give people an accounting of such vast sums of money is shameful. It is also further example of this ongoing corruption in Grenada.
Instead of coverups and excuses, what would be nice is solid corrective steps to right these wrongs.